Slip and Fall

Today, there was a slip and fall. In the grocery store.

I was going down the aisle and was about 3 feet from rounding the curve by the cans of soup and was thinking about whether I wanted minestrone or lentil, and the next thing I realized, I hadn't made it to the end of the aisle but instead had slammed down on my hands and knees on the floor.

I looked up, amazed. I knew I was a klutz, but what did I do? Trip over my own 2 feet? (It's been known to happen.) I didn't see anything on the ground, but as I pushed myself up on my hands, they felt all oily and gross.

After I went to get one of the employees to call someone to clean it up (or at the very least, put out a cuidado sign!), Alvin told me that when he had been in that part of the aisle earlier, someone had been cleaning up a spilled bottle of duck sauce.

Well, that explained a lot! Namely, why I didn't see anything on the floor to be careful of, and why I slipped. I was so close to the floor when I realized that there was a spill that I was able to see all the oily and greasy swishes all over the floor. I guess the guy had decided mopping was the best way to clean up duck sauce...

As we waited for them to come (and bring some towels), an employee waited, telling some people not to go over the area. But he forgot to tell another woman, who slipped, almost fell, was able to grab her cart for support, and threw a fit that no one warned her. I felt bad, yes, but no one warned me either, so there was a limit to how bad I could feel about the whole thing.

Eventually the manager came over, and of course, I'm sure you can imagine what was going through his head, "potential lawsuit." We swapped numbers. I asked him if I would be able to clean up my pants and shoes (soaked in duck sauce - gross!), and he said he could spray them but it might get too slippery and I'd fall again. I declined, although what I was really hoping for was a small pack of complimentary detergent. After all, I did fall on the floor... and it wasn't from a predispostion for clumsiness, as many other people were also slipping and the manager couldn't believe they had left a condition like that in the aisle.

But honestly, not that big of a deal. I'll have a pretty big bruise on my knee, and maybe a couple of sore muscles, but what good would it do to make a big deal out of it? It's not like the time near Christmas a couple of years ago that I was in a Bath & Body Works, and one of those gift sets in a Santa carriage with wheels rolled off the top shelf and whacked me so hard in the head that I fell on the floor speechless and crying.

I think it must be the whole "going to the grocery store on Sunday morning" thing. It's crowded because of the new ads, and people are in a rush and careless and breaking things. While going to the checkout line, my mom almost slipped on detergent that was in front of one of the lines, and then an employee did fall while walking by. And then while checking out, there was a mop call somewhere else. What a mess.

But on balance, it wasn't a bad weekend so far. Made it to the (hopefully) last of the 1st year NJ CLEs, brought back my car, and got to practice about 2 hours of piano, which I was craving all week. During the week at work one day, I was listening to classical music on the radio and Moonlight Sonata came on, and my fingers started moving, and I just really missed playing. (It's been a couple of years, at least.) Next up - watching the Superbowl and Grey's Anatomy. Trying to figure out what the best way will be to blog about the commercials. Last year's entry was really long. We'll see what happens.